Birmingham City manager Chris Hughton has expressed disappointment at his team's performance in their 1-0 defeat at Blackpool this evening.

The Blues boss said that his side must improve in next week's Championship playoff semi-final second leg if they want to keep their Premier League aspirations alive.

"We didn't use the ball well enough... we'll certainly have to improve, but we're still right in it," Hughton told BBC Sport.

Birmingham went down to a Curtis Davies own goal at Bloomfield Road, leaving them with a deficit to overturn in the return leg.

"We always knew it was going to be a difficult game," Hughton added. "Blackpool get a lot of possession in the middle of the park and all you can do is try and restrict them to minimal chances, which we did.

"But we didn't use the ball well enough in our general play, or working on the counter."

Birmingham and Blackpool will go head to head in the return leg at St. Andrew's on May 9.